Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Isaac Chotiner: Barbara Ehrenreich Doesn't Have Time for Self-Care (Slate)
The Natural Causes author on wellness fads, the pernicious ideology of Oprah, and the classism of smoking bans.
Froma Harrop: Trump Didn't Lie to Farmers (Creators Syndicate)
Farmers keep asking why Donald Trump is hurting them on trade when they helped elect him. The better question is: Why did they help elect him? Candidate Trump promised a trade war, and he delivered. No hidden agenda here.
Froma Harrop: Facebook Clearly Won't Fix Itself (Creators Syndicate)
Mark Zuckerberg in 2006: "We really messed this one up. ... We did a bad job of explaining what the new features were and an even worse job of giving you control of them." Zuckerberg in 2010: "Sometimes we move too fast. ... We will add privacy controls that are much simpler to use." Zuckerberg early this year: "It was my mistake, and I'm sorry. ... There's more we can do here to limit the information developers can access and put more safeguards in place to prevent abuse." Zuckerberg this week at the Senate hearing on …
Lenore Skenazy: Another Lesson in Fear (Creators Syndicate)
Here's how parents are being brainwashed into fear for their kids and contempt for their communities. Remember: This fear is new. Our parents weren't browbeaten into thinking that anytime a child opened the door and stepped outside, the parent was a negligent hussy and the kid was dead meat. But here's how Julie Chen, co-host of "The Talk," introduced Utah's new law regarding free-range parenting: …
Alison Flood: Boy Who Came Back From Heaven author sues book's Christian publisher (The Guardian)
Alex Malarkey claims he has been financially exploited over bestselling account of meeting Jesus 'concocted' by his father.
Alison Flood: Only known edition of annotated Ben Jonson plays saved for the nation (The Guardian)
An overseas buyer was prevented from purchasing the 1640 book after the UK government intervened, allowing the University of Edinburgh to buy the 'extraordinary' collection.
Alison Flood: "Pee and pesticides: Thoreau's Walden Pond in trouble, warn scientists" (The Guardian)
Immortalised for its beauty by Henry David Thoreau, the Massachusetts pond is under threat from increased human activity and climate change according to a new study.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
replied:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
"Doug's Most Shared Facebook Post" Today
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Reader Comment
Current Events
The end?
Cynthia shared the attached.
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda (& Cynthia)!
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Suggestion
YouTube Links
Hi Marty,
Here are a couple of recent song parodies from YouTube user Rocky Mountain Mike:
Reader Comment
tax cut meme
$135,000,000,000 is just the amount given to the richest 1%
NOT the entire trillion $1,000,000,000,000 deficit.
some guy
Thanks, Guy!!
from Marc Perkel
Marc's Guide to Curing Cancer
So far so good on beating cancer for now. I'm doing fine. At the end of the month I'll be 16 months into an 8 month mean lifespan. And yesterday I went on a 7 mile hike and managed to keep up with the hiking group I was with. So, doing something right.
Still waiting for future test results and should see things headed in the right direction. I can say that it's not likely that anything dire happens in the short term so that means that I should have time to make several more attempts at this. So even if it doesn't work the first time there are a lot of variations to try. So if there's bad news it will help me pick the next radiation target.
I have written a "how to" guide for oncologists to perform the treatment that I got. I'm convinced that I'm definitely onto something and whether it works for me or not isn't the definitive test. I know if other people tried this that it would work for some of them, and if they improve it that it will work for a lot of them.
The guide is quite detailed and any doctor reading this can understand the procedure at every level. I also go into detail as to how it works, how I figured it out, and variations and improvements that could be tried to enhance it. I also introduce new ways to look at the problem. There is a lot of room for improvement and I think that doctors reading it will see what I'm talking about and want to build on it. And it's written so that if you're not a doctor you can still follow it. It also has a personal story revealing that I'm the class clown of cancer support group. I give great interviews and I look pretty hot in a lab coat.
So, feel free to read this and see what I'm talking about. But if any of you want to help then pass this around to both doctors and cancer patients. I need some media coverage. I'm looking for as many eyeballs as possible to read these ideas. Even if this isn't the solution, it's definitely on the right track. After all, I did hike 7 miles yesterday. And this hiking group wasn't moving slow. So if this isn't working then, why am I still here?
I also see curing cancer as more of an engineering problem that a medical problem. So if you are good at solving problems and most of what you know about medicine was watching the Dr. House MD TV show, then you're at the level I was at when I started. So anyone can jump in and be part of the solution.
Here is a link to my guide: Oncologists Guide to Curing Cancer using Abscopal Effect
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
JAIL THE REPUBLICAN RAPIST!
"THE END STAGE OF THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY."
'POOTY POOT' WINS AGAIN.
FURTHER PROOF THAT ALIENS ARE RUNNING OUR COUNTRY.
INSANITY!
"A RELIGIOUS CULT."
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny moring, overcast afternoon.
Induction Ceremony
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
The 33rd annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductions that took place last night at Public Hall stretched on for over four hours. Bon Jovi, one of the six acts getting inducted, dominated the ceremony, making it so that the event appealed more to the band's fans than to the fans of the other acts being inducted (Dire Straits, for example, who received very little stage time).
Shock jock Howard Stern did the honors for Bon Jovi. He peppered his remarks with his typically lewd comments about threesomes and other sexual acts while acknowledging that "hell must have frozen over" because he left his home to come to Cleveland, something he has complained vociferously about ever since he found out the Inductions were taking place this year in Cleveland and not New York.
He proceeded to trash Rolling Stone magazine publisher Jann Wenner, whom he said worked behind-the-scenes to ensure Bon Jovi wouldn't be inducted into the Rock Hall. "That magazine is now a pamphlet," he said disparagingly, adding that he read an entire issue while hanging out backstage.
After Bon Jovi took up the first hour of the four-plus hour long event, three members of Dire Straits unceremoniously inducted themselves. Without any sort of presenter, they humbly accepted their award and apologized for the absence of frontman Mark Knopfler, whom bassist John Illsley said couldn't attend because of "personal reasons." The band didn't perform after accepting the award during a very awkward moment.
After taped testimonials from the likes of Johnny Cash, Little Richard, Aretha Franklin and Jerry Lee Lewis, Alabama Shakes singer Brittany Howard inducted guitarist Sister Rosetta Tharpe, calling her "the godmother of rock 'n' roll." Howard sang a Tharpe track with backing from Questlove of the Roots on drums and Felicia Collins from The Late Show with David Letterman band on guitar. The dreadlocked Collins took over lead vocals to turn in a rousing rendition of Tharpe's "Strange Things Happening Every Day."
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
Use By Professions
Marijuana
People can now buy marijuana for medical use in 29 states and the District of Columbia, and eight states have legalized marijuana for recreational use. Should employers be worried about safety hazards of marijuana use both on and off the job?
A survey released by the Centers for Disease and Control Prevention (CDC) Thursday may help inform employers in Colorado about marijuana use in their industry.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) analyzed data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) -- a phone survey about health habits in general -- and published a breakdown of marijuana use by industry and job.
Which profession smokes the most pot? In the "accommodation and food services" industry, 30 percent of workers reported smoking pot at least once in the past month. Those in the job category "food preparation and serving" had the highest use at 32 percent of workers.
What other professions have a high proportion of marijuana users? "Arts, design, entertainment, sports and media" came in second at 28 percent.
Marijuana
Tracking Non-Users
Facebook
Concern about Facebook Inc's respect for data privacy is widening to include the information it collects about non-users, after Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said the world's largest social network tracks people whether they have accounts or not.
Privacy concerns have swamped Facebook since it acknowledged last month that information about millions of users wrongly ended up in the hands of political consultancy Cambridge Analytica, a firm that has counted U.S. President Donald Trump's 2016 electoral campaign among its clients.
Zuckerberg said on Wednesday under questioning by U.S. Representative Ben Luján that, for security reasons, Facebook also collects "data of people who have not signed up for Facebook."
Lawmakers and privacy advocates immediately protested the practice, with many saying Facebook needed to develop a way for non-users to find out what the company knows about them.
Facebook gets some data on non-users from people on its network, such as when a user uploads email addresses of friends. Other information comes from "cookies," small files stored via a browser and used by Facebook and others to track people on the internet, sometimes to target them with ads.
Facebook
China
Weibo
China's Sina Weibo will remove gay and violent content, including pictures, cartoons and text posts, during a three-month clean-up campaign, the microblogging platform said.
Friday's announcement comes amid a clampdown targeting content across social media platforms as China's leaders look to tighten their grip on a huge and diverse cultural scene popular with the young.
Weibo announced the move on its official administrator's account, saying the action aimed to comply with China's new cyber security law that calls for strict data surveillance.
The post drew more than 24,000 comments, was forwarded more than 110,000 times, and prompted users to protest against the decision, using the hashtag "I am gay".
Award-winning gay romance "Call Me By Your Name" was also dropped from a Chinese film festival last month. Homosexuality is not illegal in China, but activists say the conservative attitudes of some parts of society have prompted occasional government clampdowns.
Weibo
Photo 'Not Misleading at All'
Sarah
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R-Miss Information) defended her Saturday night tweet of a photo of President-for-now Donald Trump (R-Crooked) and his team being "briefed" about the Syria crisis, saying it was "not misleading at all" despite online chatter.
The tweet touted Trump's decision on Friday to order military air strikes in Syria: "Last night the President put our adversaries on notice: when he draws a red line he enforces it."
But the Twitterverse noted that the tweet included a photo of a briefing in the White House situation room that included Vice President Mike Pence, who was actually in Peru on Friday at a summit of Latin America leaders.
On Sunday, Sanders clarified that the photo came from a briefing earlier in the week. "It's from Thursday meeting when he was briefed on Syria," Sanders said in an email to Politico. "So no, not misleading at all."
But many online commenters and journalists noted that Sanders tweet included a note that suggested that the photo might have come from the "last night" she referenced: "Inside the Situation Room as President is briefed on Syria Official WH photos by Shealah Craighead."
Sarah
Trade War
Iowa
At the Kimberley family farm in rural Iowa the winter frost has lifted and the next few weeks will bring soybean planting season.
"One in every three rows of beans goes to China," said Grant Kimberley, watching a combine harvester spraying fertilizer across a vast field.
But Mr Kimberley, 42, whose ancestors have tilled the soil here since the 1860s, didn't look overly confident those exports would continue.
A potentially devastating trade war looms and US soybeans headed for China could face a 25 per cent tariff. The proposed tariff hangs like a sword of Damocles over Iowa, a state bigger than England known as the "breadbasket of America".
Forty per cent of China's soybeans, $14 billion worth a year, come from the US, and much of that comes from Iowa. The state is now awash with predictions of impending economic doom, and growing anger at Donald Trump (R-Corrupt) for triggering the crisis in the first place by putting tariffs on Chinese steel.
Iowa
Mysterious Gathering
1,400 Sharks
Nearly 1,400 basking sharks were spotted in aerial photos in a puzzling gathering off the East Coast of the U.S.
The unusual plankton-eating basking sharks are the second largest fish in the world - surpassed only by the whale shark - and have been generally believed to be solitary swimmers. The huge fish can reach 32 feet in length and weigh as much as five tons.
An analysis of satellite and aerial photos found hundreds of them collected in a kind of shark conference in the waters off southern New England in 2013, according to a new study. Scientist suspect the gathering wasn't related to mating. The animals were all adults or juveniles, according to the research published this month in the Journal of Fish Biology.
Researchers speculate the sharks may have been in a feeding frenzy on a plankton bloom in the area before setting off on their annual autumn migration south. A survey the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration conducted shortly after the 2013 gathering found high concentrations of zooplankton, adding support for that theory.
Until the study, basking sharks were known to gather occasionally, but only a few hundred at a time at the most and generally in the Pacific, according to experts.
1,400 Sharks
New Planet-Hunter
NASA
NASA is poised to launch a $337 million washing machine-sized spacecraft that aims to vastly expand mankind's search for planets beyond our solar system, particularly closer, Earth-sized ones that might harbor life.
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, is scheduled to launch Monday at 6:32 pm (2232 GMT) atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Its main goal over the next two years is to scan more than 200,000 of the brightest stars for signs of planets circling them and causing a dip in brightness known as a transit.
NASA predicts that TESS will discover 20,000 exoplanets -- or planets outside the solar system -- including more than 50 Earth-sized planets and up to 500 planets less than twice the size of Earth.
TESS is designed as a follow-on to the US space agency's Kepler spacecraft, which was the first of its kind and launched in 2009. Now, the aging spacecraft is low on fuel and near the end of its life.
NASA
Weekend Box Office
"Rampage"
After a wobbly start, Dwayne Johnson muscled his way to a No. 1 opening for "Rampage" - but just barely. Close on its heels was the word-of-mouth sensation "A Quiet Place" in its second week in theaters, and not too far behind that was the Blumhouse horror "Truth or Dare" in a competitive weekend at the box office.
Warner Bros. said Sunday that "Rampage" earned an estimated $34.5 million in its first weekend in North American theaters, and dominated internationally too with $114.1 million from 61 territories.
After its stunning debut, John Krasinski's modestly-budgeted "A Quiet Place" fell only 35 percent in weekend two, adding $32.6 million to its domestic total, which is now just shy of $100 million for Paramount Pictures.
"Truth or Dare" also found a sizable audience that was mostly young (60 percent under the age of 25) and female (60 percent). The PG-13 rated pic stars "Pretty Little Liars" alum Lucy Hale. With a budget of just $3.5 million, the film took in a terrific $19.1 million over the weekend - just the latest in a string of successes for the Blumhouse and Universal Pictures partnership.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to comScore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1."Rampage," $34.5 million.
2."A Quiet Place," $32.6 million.
3."Truth or Dare," $19.1 million.
4."Ready Player One," $11.2 million.
5."Blockers," $10.3 million.
6."Black Panther," $5.3 million.
7."Isle of Dogs," $5 million.
8."I Can Only Imagine," $3.8 million.
9."Tyler Perry's Acrimony," $3.7 million.
10."Chappaquiddick," $3 million.
"Rampage"
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